Review: Josh Tillman, the ex-Fleet Foxes member, has confused plenty with his alter ego Father John Misty, and occasionally it can be hard to tell whether the recently-married troubadour is inhabiting a distinct role or dealing out confessional ditties straight from the heart. Yet what is beyond question is how fascinating and addictive I Love You, Honeybear manages to be. By turns lushly arranged and stark, Tillman sets his reflective songwriting to a sonic backdrop infused with Laurel Canyon flavour, arriving at a reinvention of the singer-songwriter stylings of the mid-'70s for a newer, still more complicated era-think Elton John by way of John Grant. The result is a modern-day triumph that's as acerbic as it is emotionally involving.

Things It Would Have Been Helpful To Know Before The Revolution (4:11)

Ballad Of The Dying Man (4:52)

Birdie (5:09)

Leaving LA (13:10)

A Bigger Paper Bag (4:36)

When The God Of Love Returns There'll Be Hell To Pay (4:01)

Smoochie (3:42)

Two Wildly Different Perspectives (2:59)

The Memo (5:18)

So I'm Growing Old On Magic Mountain (9:51)

In Twenty Years Or So (6:31)

Review: Perhaps LA's most well-loved postmodern troubadour, Joshua Tillman brings his third album as Father John Misty, a sprawling and theatrical epic polemic on just about all of our modern society. The quality of his writing here is far more complex and impressive, as heart-wrenching chord progressions and grandiose song structures keep the listener firmly in the palm of his hand. The album's title 'Pure Comedy' is the first stab of bitter irony here, as Tillman seems in a more serious and pensive mood than we became used to with tongue-in-cheek and self-assured previous albums 'Fear Fun' and 'I Love You, Honeybear'. That isn't to say that the album is totally humourless, but that Tillman uses it in smaller doses to antidote the cathartic and anxious emotion to far greater effect.

Review: Perhaps LA's most well-loved postmodern troubadour, Joshua Tillman brings his third album as Father John Misty, a sprawling and theatrical epic polemic on just about all of our modern society. The quality of his writing here is far more complex and impressive, as heart-wrenching chord progressions and grandiose song structures keep the listener firmly in the palm of his hand. The album's title 'Pure Comedy' is the first stab of bitter irony here, as Tillman seems in a more serious and pensive mood than we became used to with tongue-in-cheek and self-assured previous albums 'Fear Fun' and 'I Love You, Honeybear'. That isn't to say that the album is totally humourless, but that Tillman uses it in smaller doses to antidote the cathartic and anxious emotion to far greater effect.

Things It Would Have Been Helpful To Know Before The Revolution (4:11)

Ballad Of The Dying Man (4:52)

Birdie (5:09)

Leaving LA (13:10)

A Bigger Paper Bag (4:36)

When The God Of Love Returns There'll Be Hell To Pay (4:01)

Smoochie (3:42)

Two Wildly Different Perspectives (2:59)

The Memo (5:18)

So I'm Growing Old On Magic Mountain (9:51)

In Twenty Years Or So (6:31)

Review: Perhaps LA's most well-loved postmodern troubadour, Joshua Tillman brings his third album as Father John Misty, a sprawling and theatrical epic polemic on just about all of our modern society. The quality of his writing here is far more complex and impressive, as heart-wrenching chord progressions and grandiose song structures keep the listener firmly in the palm of his hand. The album's title 'Pure Comedy' is the first stab of bitter irony here, as Tillman seems in a more serious and pensive mood than we became used to with tongue-in-cheek and self-assured previous albums 'Fear Fun' and 'I Love You, Honeybear'. That isn't to say that the album is totally humourless, but that Tillman uses it in smaller doses to antidote the cathartic and anxious emotion to far greater effect.